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Researchers in Argentina announced the discovery of a new giant dinosaur species on Monday. Dubbed the Ingentia prima, Agencia CTyS-UNLaM reports, the newly discovered species would have reached a maximum mass of 10 tonnes and would be three times larger than the largest Triassic dinosaurs currently known. "An early trend toward gigantism among the sauropodomorphic dinosaurs of the Triassic," published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution reveals that giant dinosaurs existed long before one would think it.
"Before this discovery, gigantism during the Jurassic period, there are about 180 million years, but Ingentia prima lived at the end of the Triassic, there are between 210 and 205 million years ", Says Dr. Cecilia Apaldetti, lead author of the study
.The name refers to the size and timing of its emergence, according to the co-author of the study. [19659004] "The name of this new species," Ingentia ", refers to its colossal size, while" prima " indicates that he is the first. Paleontologist Ricardo Martinez
Researchers believe that the Ingentia prima was born at the end of the Triassic, some 205 to 210 million years ago. While a size of up to 30 feet in length and a mass of about 20,000 pounds would be overshadowed by the dinosaurs later, "it was considerably larger than the other early sauropodomorphs", according to . Cecilia Alpadetti and an illustration of Ingentia prima.
Agencia CTyS-UNLaM
"Here we describe a new sauropodomorph of the Upper Triassic of Argentina nestled within a clade of other non-Eusauropods of southwestern Pangea. The members of this clade attained significant body size while maintaining a pattern of cyclic pleiomorphic growth, with many features of the body planar basal sauropodomorphs and devoid of most anatomical features previously considered to be adaptations to gigantism ". one in the summary of the study. The new species is remarkable not only for its size in this period of time, but for the way it grew to such a size. Ignacio Cerda, researcher at the Institute of Research in Biology and Paleo Geology of the National University of Rio Negro, examined the fossils of Ingentia prima to analyze its growth.
"Just as growing seasons can be observed in a tree, the bone cuts at Ingentia prima show cyclical and seasonal growth, but what is striking is that the type of tissue that s & # 39; 39; is deposited in the bones during these periods of growth is different from other sauropods we knew until now, "says Cerda.
The anatomy of Ingentia prima allowed him to grow at an accelerated rate for periods, as opposed to a constant rate throughout one's lifetime
